Devices that shade one's eyes from the glare of the sun have been traced back to ancient Greeks in 600 BC where historians have found examples of headwear whose purpose is to provide shade to one's face. It was also seen that these headdresses had both a functional as well as a class purpose, where hats adorned with jewels signified class and culture. Today, baseball style caps are worn by many and the purpose has not greatly changed. Caps are worn for protection but are also worn to signify one's desire to be associated with a particular class of people. Whether the class of people desire to show their support to a particular sports team or for a particular cause, such as pink symbolizing their support for the awareness for breast cancer survivors, caps can have symbolic purposes and functional ones at the same time.
This invention recognizes that while one might require various caps to show support to various causes the problems associated maintaining storage for these many caps causes problems. This invention discloses a capping system, whereby one has the ability to use a single crown section of a baseball style hat with an interchangeable system of types, styles and colors of bills. An embodiment of this invention allows uses to be able to change the crown and/or the bill of the cap.
A typical baseball style cap consists of 3 main components. The Crown, the Brim and the Bill. The Crown is usually made with multiple panels that are conjoined at the apex of the crown. The inner circumference of the open portion of the crown, opposite the apex, is the Brim while the part emanating perpendicular from the plane of the brim is the Bill. This invention deals with the interchangeability of the bill and/or crown portion while maintaining the style, purpose and function of the remaining parts.
Prior art has shown that hats exist with interchangeable features. U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,212 issued to Huffman on May 17, 1977, discloses a cap with an interchangeable Crown, where users can change to a multiple of styles of crowns including solid and mesh styles. The crown is held to an unique two piece brim via Velcro straps and the user is able to attach and detach the crown from the brim by releasing several Velcro straps that are located in the interior of the crown. The two piece brim allows for some adjustability for the varying size of the users' heads. U.S. Pat. No. 4,873,726 issued to Tapia on Oct. 17, 1989, discloses a replaceable bill that is sandwiched between an arcuate band and the front part of the brim of the cap. The bill is held in place with Velcro attached to the bill and the brim of the cap. The issue with this design is whether the cap and bill will maintain contact through extreme use and sweat that are present during such activity. Neither of these inventions rely on the actual bill to be the actual attachment and adjustment mechanisms for the product. It is important that the crown and the bill act autonomously, as in the act of “telescoping” or rolling, curling or bending of the bill into a conical like section. Using with Tapia or Huffman, the bill would simply tear away from the Velcro straps holding it in place exposing the crown in an unnatural way. The bill and crown must be flexible together while maintaining their new shape, not restricting the new shape.
What is needed then is a cap with replaceable bills, a cap which is easily manufacturable, where the actual bill is the sole means of attachment and adjustment for the cap to the wearer's head.
What is needed is a cap with a replaceable bill, whereby the bill can be shaped or flattened, while the crown, though in contact with the bill, can adjust to and maintain a new shape following the contour of the shaped bill.
What is needed is a cap whereby the user can change the crown of the cap and/or the bill of the cap to suit whatever desires they have, and this interchangeability is done with minimum time and effort, without even the need to remove the cap from the users head to replace the crown.